Living in Reality
by Jess-chan of the Nya Nya Neko
Summary: Sequel to 'Dreaming of Reality'...She turned a corner only to see two people sitting in chairs, staring right at her. “Hello, Botan.” “We’ve been expecting you.”
1. Prologue

I'm back; with the sequel to Dreaming of Reality!!!

I know I told Botan Urameshi that I'd write a ficlet for her, and I'm working on that, I promise!!! However, all the work I had previously done on it, is now lost. So, I have to start from scratch. But, no matter -it will arrive soon!

Anywho; this disclaimer goes for the entire story, because I will forget to put it on all the other chapters...

**Disclaimer!** I do not own the characters in this story, except the ones that are not in the anime or the manga. Obviously, those would belong to me, or somone that I know.

Anywho; without further delay... LIVING IN REALITY!!

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**Living in Reality: Prologue**

The room was dark; light barely filtered in through the open window blinds. She was on her bed, sitting up with her blanket falling around her waist. Her hand was on her mouth, trying to cover her sobs. Tears were streaming down her face, and her heart pounded wildly in her chest.

A small alarm was ringing from her bedside table. Koenma was calling her to his office. It was loud, signaling that this was not the first time he was calling for her.

In panic, she ripped away from her bed, throwing the covers off of herself. Her long blue hair fell around her shoulders, and she bolted for the exit. Subconsciously, she wondered why her hair was long again –wasn't it supposed to be short? She didn't stop to ponder it, however; she had to get to Koenma.

She ran as fast as she could, the tears stopping quickly as she did so. Koenma was going to _kill_ her! Soon, though, she was exhausted, and began to walk instead of run.

How long had it been since the tournament? It felt like forever. She could barely remember it –was her memory going fuzzy? Her eyes caught a flash of red, and she stumbled back away from it, tears springing to her eyes again.

_Kurama_…

She blinked the tears back, reminding herself that he was gone now. She kept her eyes low, glad that the carpet was blue instead of any other color that would remind her of him.

She opened the door to Koenma's office without a sound. "You called for me, sir?" she asked, without looking up.

"Botan, I need you to…" he paused, "Botan, what's wrong? Why aren't you like your normal, happy self?"

She balked, how could she be happy after losing the person she loved?!

"Koenma! How could you even thi-" she started, and then she screamed.

Green eyes stared at her from across the room. His pale, flawless face looked confused as she covered her mouth with a hand; and his crimson locks fell over his shoulders. He stood normally, beside three others that she knew as well.

"How… no! This isn't!" helpless to form a complete sentence, she screamed again, pointing her finger at him.

"But… you're dead!"

She had transported herself back to her own room after that. She was crying and screaming, and she knelt in the fetal position, still keeping on her feet. They had all tried to come towards her, then; and that sent her into more hysterics.

Finally, realizing that she couldn't stand her own hallucination anymore, she used her Dragon power to transport herself back to her room. When she called upon her power, it felt old and rusty. No wonder, though; seeing as she hadn't used it since the tournament.

Now, she knelt at her bed. Her arm was draped on top of it, underneath her head. The rest of her was leaning against the bed for support, and she faced the single window in her room. It was big, and the curtain was drawn. She watched as the heaven's cried with her, bringing on lightning and thunder with its tears.

It didn't surprise her; the weather usually reflected her mood anyway. She was surprised the land wasn't flooded by now –it had rained every day since the tournament. Of course, she couldn't really remember what she did during those days… it was just a fact that she knew it had rained… why couldn't she remember anything else? …

Her door opened, and Koenma walked in. She knew it was him by the energy that accompanied him; and she knew he would come for her since he had been paging her for hours. She had simply taken the alarm and stuffed it inside her closet and then ignored it the rest of the time. She didn't want to see him; not now.

"Botan, do you want to tell me what's going on?"

She glared icily at him, and then sighed, her gaze softening. There was a pause in the thunder. "I'm sorry, Koenma-sir… I saw him again today. I thought I was over it, but I guess the tournament had more effect on me than I thought. I'll get back to work as soon as you need me to."

There was a pause, and then, "Botan, what are you talking about?!" Koenma exclaimed, "Who's 'he', and what tournament?!"

Botan balked at him, disbelieving. "I know you told me to get over it, sir; but I think this kind of attitude is wrong!" she exclaimed. "Especially when I am clearly not over it yet!"

"Botan; what are you talking about!"

"Kurama! I saw Kurama today –but it's obviously impossible, because _he's __dead_!" she screamed the last two words at him, leaning her upper body towards him for more force. The thunder was loud now, going along with her outburst.

"Botan, he's not dead! What gave you that idea!? You just saw him yesterday!"

"NO! Stop lying!" she clamped her hands over her ears and the lightning struck dangerously close to her window. She curled into herself, and the thunder nearly shook the entire palace.

Vaguely, she registered the door being wrenched open, and a taller figure appearing instead of the baby form of Koenma. Lightning struck again, illuminating the room for an instant.

Red hair and green eyes swam in her vision before she clamped her eyes shut again. Soft hands brushed against her face, only to take her own hands in a calming grip.

"Botan…" he whispered. She shook her head wildly, tears flowing again. "Botan, look at me."

She refused to open her eyes –her heart hurt too much. She could feel a wind picking up around her as her powers went unchecked. The lightning struck again, crashing against the outer wall of the building. The lights flared, and then everything was dark again.

"Botan, I'm right here." The voice told her. She wanted to give in so badly, but she knew it couldn't be true. She had seen him die! He couldn't be alive now… could he?

"Botan, open your eyes."

Her eyes opened widely and took in the face of the very warm, and very alive, Kurama.

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So... there you go... anyone confused yet??

hehehe...

Read and Review!! I love you all!!!


	2. Expected

Living in Reality  
Chapter One: Expected

She didn't blink, only stared straight ahead. How could everything have been a dream? It couldn't be –she had been awake! She saw Kurama die; and Yami, Hikari, and Situk were gone too! So, how could it be that Kurama was now standing in front of her, looking concerned?

This couldn't be true –how was everything a dream?

"Botan, are you okay?" Koenma's voice snapped her from her daze, and she looked at him blankly. Was she okay? Of course not –she didn't know what was a dream and what was reality! But, then again she was, because no one had died –she didn't lose anyone.

She looked over to the boys again. Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama all looked back at her. She shook her head once and put on a bright smile.

"Of course, sir; I'm fine! It was just a silly dream that I had, that's all." And she continued to smile even though she still couldn't believe it. "Koenma Sir; what do you know about Dragons?"

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Koenma had seemed shocked that she had even known that Dragons existed –as did everyone else. Of course, they seemed shocked just because she had freaked out upon seeing Kurama –so, she put that behind her. She needed to know if Dragons still existed here –if there were others, that is. She could still use her powers, though they were rusty, so Dragons existed –but were the others?

And that was why she was currently in the main computer room without permission, looking up information about Dragons.

It was the middle of the night in Reikai; everyone else was asleep. She had also scrounged up her magic and made the entire room pitch black to anyone but her, even though the computer screen lit up half the room.

The tapping of her fingers on the keys echoed in the large room, but she researched as much as she could. She searched 'Dragons' in the main stream, and clicked on the first source.

It was there that she found out there were more dragons than she could have imagined. She had only met a few in her dream –but there were so many more.

Everyone she had met in the dream was still alive –still part of the story. They just didn't know her in this reality. She had never met Milanos, or Situk, or Yami –or anyone else. But they were still alive. She let out a breath of relief.

But there were others –Dragon of Storm, Dragon of Tempest, and –this one caught her eye –Dragons of Reality. She clicked on the name to hopefully get more information.

Apparently, they were twin dragons –completely opposite of each other. They were compared to the Fates, only Dragon-style. They were still alive, and they lived on top of a mountain somewhere in Reikai.

Well that didn't help.

Botan could spot a lead easily –she knew that these Dragons could help her. She just needed to find them somehow. There were hundreds of mountains in Reikai –which one was it?!

The hours continued to move on as she continued her research, gaining more and more information as she went. Myths said that they lived at the source of the river Styx. Others said that they weren't even on this planet. Still others said that they lived at the top of the highest mountain in Reikai. Botan gave up her search around 6 a.m.

She stretched out onto her bed, thoughts whirling. She could try to take the day off and fly around Reikai –to the source of the Styx. She sighed, closing her eyes. Maybe in a few hours…

* * *

She woke up later with a note beside her bed from Koenma saying to take the rest of the day off. He must've come in and seen her fast asleep… She looked towards the window. Better now than never. She began to prepare herself for the trip upstream.

She packed a light backpack of food and other essentials for the flight. She figured that she'd be back here by evening –it shouldn't take very long, especially if there was nothing there in the first place. She was hoping that there was, but also expected that she would find nothing. It terrified her to think that she would never get answers. She brushed the thought off quickly.

Botan stood in her window, looking at the ground far below her. This was going to be fun, she smiled. The wind blew through her hair softly, calling her to join it in its flight. She listened.

She jumped, stretching her arms out and reveling in the feeling of the air slapping her face. She was freefalling and enjoying every moment of it. She felt free and powerful and graceful –it was a beautiful moment.

Before she hit the ground, she called out her wings and began flying quickly upstream. She flew for hours, not resting or stopping. It was close to evening when she finally saw the mountains that lead to the source of the river.

She flew around for a while, just trying to sense if there were any Dragons nearby. As she flew through the line of mountains, a large gust of wind caught her off guard. She tried to right herself, but couldn't manage to do so –she was going to crash! Botan clenched her eyes shut and readied herself for the pain of crashing into a mountain.

It was much different than what she expected…

She crashed into something, yes; but then she slid on slick floors. Instead of hitting ground and a few trees and more ground, she was lying on a floor, inside what seemed to be a hidden fortress of some sort.

Opening her eyes, she realized that she was in a room and that she could sense two Dragons very close-by. The wind must've swept her into this place…

She wandered around the well-built establishment, slowly focusing more on the Dragons she could now sense. There were mirrors everywhere, but they didn't reflect the room –they reflected completely different places. She turned a corner only to see two people sitting in chairs, staring right at her.

"Hello, Botan."

"We've been expecting you."

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Wow... I'm sorry that it's been over a year, and I'm sorry that you get such a short chapter to make up for it... I'll try to update this more often...

Sorry again

Jess-chan


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